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In medieval Middelburg she walked among her people, heard how they suffered (in the north, she knew, in the land still unliberated, famine and disease were even more shocking). This old lady had sheltered an Allied airman. This youth had spied on a V-bomb launching site, sent word to the Allies. This widow had lost her husband to a German firing squad. God-fearing Wilhelmina thanked them all, called for two minutes of silent prayer for those who had died in the fight for freedom.
In the silence a baby cried. It was the infant daughter of a man executed for resistance to the Germans. Silently the Queen wept.